Sen. Susan Collins is the latest cast member added to Washington D.C.'s kabuki production of the Most Transparent Power Grab for the Massachusetts Senate Seat Ever.
Senator Susan Collins of Maine met for some 95 minutes with Rice Wednesday morning to discuss the ambassador’s initial account of the deadly attack on the US consulate in Libya on Sept. 11.http://bostonglobe.com/...Collins told reporters she has many lingering questions that remain unanswered.
Collins stopped short of saying she would try to block a nomination as some GOP senators have suggested.
She made clear that if Obama choses Democratic Sen. John Kerry instead of Rice that he would have an easy path to confirmation.
Sen. Collins has upped the ante on the coordinated attack on Susan Rice's character and professionalism.
“What troubles me so much is the Benghazi attack in many ways echoes the attacks on both embassies in 1998, when Susan Rice was head of the African region for our State Department,” Collins said. “In both cases, the ambassador begged for additional security.”http://thehill.com/...Collins said Rice told her “she was not involved directly in turning down the requests.”
“But surely,” Collins added, “given her position .. she had to be aware of the general threat assessment and the ambassadors' repeated requests for more security ... [h]er actions — and whether or not lessons were learned from the 1998 attacks on our embassies in Africa — are important questions.”
“I would need to get additional information before I could support her nomination” to be secretary of State, Collins concluded.
Sen. John McCain, Sen. Lindsey Graham and now Sen. Susan Collins all have nearly identical talking points about unanswered questions, which begs the question, why didn't any of you get those questions answered in 95 minutes?
Maybe you should either shorten the questions or shorten the pauses between questions, because it strains credibility that you would have more questions at this point, given all the time that you have collectively spent with Ambassador Rice.
Steve Benen breaks it down:
This whole long con has passed now into the realm of pure McCarthyism.Read more: Susan Rice John McCain Meeting - What More Does John McCain Want From Susan Rice? - Esquire http://www.esquire.com/..."We are significantly troubled by many of the answers that we got and some that we didn't get," said McCain, an Arizona Republican. "It is clear the information that [Rice] gave the American people was incorrect when she said it was a spontaneous demonstration triggered by a hateful video. It was not, and there was compelling evidence at the time that that was certainly not the case."
No details. Nothing specific. Just John McCain, being troubled, as he has been since the country declined to make him its president. What happened with Rice and the talking-points, and why it happened, has been explained at length by everyone closely involved in the episode, including David Petraeus, whose word once was gospel, before the episode of The General, His Wife, The Other Woman, The Other General, The Other Other Woman and The Lovesick Shirtless FBI guy erupted.
Stop the madness. You currently don't have the votes to stop Susan Rice and your objections have no foundation. You were elected to do the people's work. So do it and stop the palace intrigue and character assassination of Susan Rice, in order to gain John Kerry's vacated Senate seat.